Two hundred years ago society ladies snipped theirs and gave it the poet Byron. Indigent women cropped theirs and sold it for wigs. But never in the history of human hair has a woman put her tresses to such a unique use. A woman, unnamed, has donated her hair to the violinist David Garrett, and he has used it to string his bow.
Garrett doesn’t look like most male violinists. He looks a lot more like most female violinists, having a fairly lengthy rug of his own. But for some reason he has foresworn the chance to take a pair of scissors to his own cascade of highlighted locks. Bows are regularly strung with horse hair. The story came out backstage at last weekend’s final of Dancing on Ice. Garrett revealed to one of the competitors that human hair is “more refined and produces a sweeter sound”. And one can only assume that female hair is more refined than male hair.
His publicist has released the following statement:
“David is often seen at star-studded events, performances and awards ceremonies with a model in tow, and they all seem to have one thing in common – very long hair. Each track on his new album should be named after a different girl; human hair breaks quicker than horse hair so David needed several violin bows made for the recording sessions.”
If you watch carefully you can actually see the female hair in this clip of Garrett performing Bolero on Dancing on Ice.
Watch a clip of Dancing on Ice